prevailing.
Fine is just not free.
We return fighting
If return we do.
This flag call us last.
6/5/19
Honorably discharged. / Buy ticket for Washington, D.C., arriving / there early the / morning of the 6th.
6/6/19
Some have decided to leave,
We have decided to live,
Breathing a warred skin.
Life leaves us gasping.
Ships carry us to U.S.
Our wrists still shackled.
We drop our guns, not our grief.
We make home worth fighting for.
Return to image
_ _ _ _ RIP _ _ _ _
_ _ A _ _ _ _ _ SHIP
Fig . I.
a ship owed the last year
The numb act carried
on this ship follows the ship & the practice of man the utmost that can be stowed
in a vessel of men is men only insurrections are more than rest. The men carried
351 the number of men stated in the plan 190. Difference of 161. Women
boys girls here did carry each other. Dead morning. Height between
decks & platform 2 feet 7 inch a place has to lie & breathe in.
Numb fellow creatures used in their country to anguish
Return to image
Fig. V
It is said well that a sea is a grave for men
A greater proportion of men perish in ONE year, than all the other years.
The time goes
passage from
person people
rip kept carried that
time. Humanity
must be univer
sal & lament
ed, a moral
and religious duty which may, without exaggeration, be the greatest on earth.
Return to image
AMERICA™
A house divided cannot stand. To be divided, then, is to be devastated.
The fact of the matter is that our country seldom counts all who
Matter. This is why red seeps from our flag. We will say again that
Language matters. From the beginning, the colonized are kennings:
African American, Asian American, Native American (apparently
There is no White American). American & adjective, American &
Qualifier. The term split up (l) and dismantled, stripped & striped.
Erasure demands a lifetime of rehearsal. Do you really understand what it is to be this dispensable body.
We recognize the sobs now for the flags they were. The jerk of our heads, as if waking from a dream—or a
Nightmare. You decide. This is not the nation we built , at most not the nation we’ve known. Know. Oh, no.
This is the nation we’ve sewn. It is our right to weep for the wound we’ve always been. A silent
Shock out of the blue: A hand hung to another or a head pillowed by a shoulder is by far worth more
Than anything we’ve won or wanted. When told we can’t make a difference, we’ll still make a sound.
Return to image
LIBATIONS
Today
as we
listen to speak to
the past the pain the pandem
we call out we carry on we arc we move
remembering renaming resisting repairing rousing
our world our world our world our world
like haunts like hulls like humans
loosening lighting
our mouths
home
Return to image
ANONYMOUS
We stumbled, sick with shame, groping for each other
in that heaving black. We were mouthless for months.
We could’ve been grinning. We could’ve been grimacing.
We could’ve been glass. & so, we must ask:
Who were we beneath our mask.
Who are we now that it is trashed.
Return to image
AMANDA GORMAN is the youngest presidential inaugural poet in US history. She is a committed advocate for the environment, racial equality, and gender justice. In 2017, Urban Word named her the first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate. Gorman’s performance of her poem “The Hill We Climb” at the 2021 Presidential Inauguration received critical acclaim and international attention. The special edition of her inaugural poem debuted at #1 on the New York Times , USA Today , and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. She is also the author of the children’s picture book Change Sings . After graduating cum laude from Harvard University, she now lives in her hometown of LosAngeles.
What’s next on
your reading list?
Discover your
Fine is just not free.
We return fighting
If return we do.
This flag call us last.
6/5/19
Honorably discharged. / Buy ticket for Washington, D.C., arriving / there early the / morning of the 6th.
6/6/19
Some have decided to leave,
We have decided to live,
Breathing a warred skin.
Life leaves us gasping.
Ships carry us to U.S.
Our wrists still shackled.
We drop our guns, not our grief.
We make home worth fighting for.
Return to image
_ _ _ _ RIP _ _ _ _
_ _ A _ _ _ _ _ SHIP
Fig . I.
a ship owed the last year
The numb act carried
on this ship follows the ship & the practice of man the utmost that can be stowed
in a vessel of men is men only insurrections are more than rest. The men carried
351 the number of men stated in the plan 190. Difference of 161. Women
boys girls here did carry each other. Dead morning. Height between
decks & platform 2 feet 7 inch a place has to lie & breathe in.
Numb fellow creatures used in their country to anguish
Return to image
Fig. V
It is said well that a sea is a grave for men
A greater proportion of men perish in ONE year, than all the other years.
The time goes
passage from
person people
rip kept carried that
time. Humanity
must be univer
sal & lament
ed, a moral
and religious duty which may, without exaggeration, be the greatest on earth.
Return to image
AMERICA™
A house divided cannot stand. To be divided, then, is to be devastated.
The fact of the matter is that our country seldom counts all who
Matter. This is why red seeps from our flag. We will say again that
Language matters. From the beginning, the colonized are kennings:
African American, Asian American, Native American (apparently
There is no White American). American & adjective, American &
Qualifier. The term split up (l) and dismantled, stripped & striped.
Erasure demands a lifetime of rehearsal. Do you really understand what it is to be this dispensable body.
We recognize the sobs now for the flags they were. The jerk of our heads, as if waking from a dream—or a
Nightmare. You decide. This is not the nation we built , at most not the nation we’ve known. Know. Oh, no.
This is the nation we’ve sewn. It is our right to weep for the wound we’ve always been. A silent
Shock out of the blue: A hand hung to another or a head pillowed by a shoulder is by far worth more
Than anything we’ve won or wanted. When told we can’t make a difference, we’ll still make a sound.
Return to image
LIBATIONS
Today
as we
listen to speak to
the past the pain the pandem
we call out we carry on we arc we move
remembering renaming resisting repairing rousing
our world our world our world our world
like haunts like hulls like humans
loosening lighting
our mouths
home
Return to image
ANONYMOUS
We stumbled, sick with shame, groping for each other
in that heaving black. We were mouthless for months.
We could’ve been grinning. We could’ve been grimacing.
We could’ve been glass. & so, we must ask:
Who were we beneath our mask.
Who are we now that it is trashed.
Return to image
AMANDA GORMAN is the youngest presidential inaugural poet in US history. She is a committed advocate for the environment, racial equality, and gender justice. In 2017, Urban Word named her the first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate. Gorman’s performance of her poem “The Hill We Climb” at the 2021 Presidential Inauguration received critical acclaim and international attention. The special edition of her inaugural poem debuted at #1 on the New York Times , USA Today , and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. She is also the author of the children’s picture book Change Sings . After graduating cum laude from Harvard University, she now lives in her hometown of LosAngeles.
What’s next on
your reading list?
Discover your
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